Jaws The Remake, with Birds!

Trouble has been living up to her name the last few days. She is determined to rid "Her" house of Scarlet and it has gotten worse since she "got her" yesterday.

First, I should explain the main differences between the mindset of the two dogs. Gunnar has only known two worlds. The world of his mother, milk, and his siblings. At about 12 weeks, he started to learn the world of "me". He's my buddy and is glued to my hip all day, every day. He looks to me for his direction in life and is content and happy.

Scarlet, on the other hand, was about a year old when we got her from the Humane Society. She is constantly savaging for food. It doesn't matter how much she eats. She is always looking for more. She shakes violently at loud noises. Noises that would give most dogs a moment of pause before they  go on with what they were doing will cause her to shake and zip to the closest thing she can crawl under. This is usually my desk. Or, if I just happen to be walking by, my feet . In a toy dog this is not that big of a deal, safety-wise. But, when a 50 lbs animal dashes under your feet or through your legs, it tends to be more like a bowling ball versus pins. Not so good when you have some balance issues already.

Ever since we brought Trouble home, 5 years ago, I have been trying to teach Scarlet that, if Trouble was out on the stand, scavenging around it was a really bad idea. Trouble got ahold of the tip of her tail the first week she was here. That "cured" Scarlet for a good 3 months, but after that she was right back at it and Trouble has been stalking her ever since.

At first, there was some amusement that I was very good at not showing. (No smiles/giggles/laughs etc) I corrected behaviors as I caught them. I always told Trouble no and shooed Scarlet to a safe distance. It was like watching "Jaws" upside down. The "shark" stalked it's prey from above, while the unwitting "swimmer/boater/water skier" just wandered about willy-nilly doing their thing until some random cellist begins playing ominous music.

I swear the music was blaring yesterday as Trouble flipped herself upside down faster then a blink and laid one right in the center of Scarlet's back. Scarlet could not have been any more oblivious in that moment. It's not like she doesn't know this bird is out to get her. Every time she gets close Trouble barks at her. It's also not like this is the first time she's been bitten. Trouble lures her close just to bite her! The bird purposely tosses food to the floor at varying distances to bring the dog in close. Gunnar, the resident bone head caught on to this trick with out getting bit once. How does the "smarter" of the two fall for it ever darn time?

I am starting to think the only one with half a brain is Gunnar. Don't get me wrong. Trouble is one smart Cockatoo, but I don't know if I should categorize this thing with the dog as bravery or stupidity. The dog can kill her with out trying, but she is as brazen as can be and seems to get some sort of perverse thrill at chasing Scarlet around the house.

This is the main reason you can never, under any circumstances leave a loose bird alone in a room with other animals. While, I think that Scarlet will always choose to flee when Trouble confronts her, if she were ever to become cornered I have no doubt that she would fight her way to freedom, and that would not end well for either of them.

Weather

It's rain season here in Florida, which, in a nut shell, means it rains..a lot. When it is not raining, it's hot...and muggy..and basically, yuck all the way around.

The birds are thriving in this though. Understandable, it feels like the Amazon rain forest out there so their quite at home and love being rotated out into the heat and wet. Kenya is loving it. The only water she lets touch her is rain anyway so it's good to get her out there and take advantage while we can.

On the other hand, any outdoor activity I do, must be done and completed before 10 am. After that I'd melt, or at least wish I would. So for the last week or so I have been walking Gunnar, rain or shine at about 7:30 am. It's the only out door activity I can get normally during the week, and now with the rain, the only thing I get to do on the weekends as well.

I wish my neighborhood was interesting enough to post pictures of, but I think if I walked around with my camera and just started randomly shooting, people would get suspicious and want to know -what- I thought I was doing. I highly doubt the explanation of "There was this nifty bird in the bush by your window." would exactly sooth things over any.  :(

So unfortunately no picture posts for a little while at least. The good thing about all this icky weather is I have gotten a lot of art done and I am thinking about opening an Etsy shop to try and sell it in. I have found a source to get my art put on note cards and they have been turning out really nicely. So what the heck. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Nothing ventured, nothing gained right?

Friday Picture Post

It's been a rough month here, with everything that's happening there has been very little time to get out and actually enjoy ourselves. I have been busying myself with fractal making in the hopes of keeping my mind off some of the more traumatic incidents that have recently been daunting us. And on occasion snapping pictures of the animals when they do something that makes me smile. These are a few of those pictures.

Gunnar (front) and Scarlet (rear) were running around and playing until I pulled out the camera. Scarlet went for the instant sitting girl pose while Gunnar was curious as to what he might have been doing wrong at that moment.

Echo posing pretty for his close up.

This is London, one of the green-cheek conures we have here. She is pretty feisty and very brave for a smaller bird.

As I was feeding her London made a break for it and flew over to the kitchen window. Lou is outside watching the action and wondering if she'll get close enough to grab.

Slowly life is returning to normal, life moves on even if I don't really want to. So I will try and get out a little more and of course, take pictures to share with everyone.

See you guys next week, have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

The house of the sick

Good news, Gunnar is feeling better. No accidents for 2 days (from him at least) and it seems that the rice is working. This of course is not counting the ton-o-grass he munched this morning and promptly puked up.

Now the bad news, seems Scarlet has the runs, so off the kibble she went today and onto the rice and broth. Hopefully this helps her a little faster since I am not waiting like I did with Gunnar.

Of course a house with 2 sick dogs is just not enough of a challenge for us, so I have a case of the cruds as well. I am running a slight fever, enough so that I want the house not at the 72 that it is but at a nice crisp 60 or below. The key here is I want it like that but birds and husbands over rule me on my present thermostat desires.

Weekend

We have gotten next to nothing done this weekend. Gunnar is still sick, and this "sick" has coincided with a new bag of dog food so we are thinking that that might be the issue.

He will be on boiled rice and broth for the rest of the week and if he is still having issues on Friday, (when we get paid) he will head over to the vet to see whats going on.

To say I'm worried is an understatement, I always worry, about everything. This though, has me almost panicked. I am not liking what I am seeing and all I can say defiantly is that it's not Parvo. Thank goodness.

Sick as a Dog

I have a new reference for that phrase now. Gunnar was ill last night, not puking ill, that would have been better actually. Nope his sick was all about the other end.

Imagine if you will a 80 pound boxer running past you at super speed, his face over wrought with anxiety with a fountain of dark brown sludge propelling him. =8O

Oh yea, it was a fun night. Of course this happens at midnight so trying to keep him outside wasn't happening. All he did was bark and whine and that wouldn't be put up with for long by the neighbors.

He's doing better today, back to his old non-fountain self. Thank goodness.

Who let the dogs out?

We just got back from chasing our escaped dogs. Scarlett, the bad influence that she is, dug her way out of the back fence while John was in the shower. Naturally Gunnar followed her.

When John was dry and dressed he found Scarlett in the neighbors yard. This is a scary thing because Scarlett as I have mentioned before in this blog, doesn't play well with other dogs, yet, she was easy to find and catch. Gunnar on the other hand, had a case of wonder lust.

It took more then 3 hrs to find him. Across a busy road down a dead end street and following what I can only describe as a chunky female Chihuahua. (He is neutered but apparently porky little females still smell good.)

John is over 2 hrs late for work, I am an emotional mess, and the dogs, their sleeping. Gunnar had a bath because he apparently rolled in what ever the Chihuahua did, something very dead by the smell of him.

Can I go back to bed now?

Gunnar's day at the park

Sunday has become our dog park day. As much as I would love to take both dogs out to the park, Scarlett has some issues that prevent her from socializing with others. Basically she wants to eat all the other dogs and she behaves extremely badly even when she is not trying to eat them, so she doesn't get to go on these doggie outings.

Gunnar on the other hand is very well behaved. We watch him closely and intervene when the excitement seems to ramp up a bit to high. He tends to get really rough with the other dogs, some don't mind but there are a few that don't want 80 pounds of slobbering boxer pounding down on them. So we try and keep him a bit more on the calmer side.

Gunnar is also a very vocal dog. This seems to panic other dog owners because he sounds like he is going to make their pooches a meal at any moment. I am used to his noises mainly because he is always "talking" to me when we are at home, and I find it kinda cute so there's that.

The park was pretty empty this Sunday, most folk probably opting to watch the super bowl, so there was only maybe 8 to 10 other dogs there. Everyone was getting along, not a lot of "ruff" housing, in general a pretty lazy day. At this point I asked John for his phone intent on taking a few pictures with it. He instead handed me a small Nikon camera, this confused me because I am slow sometimes and I just looked at him puzzled.

As some of you have gleaned, my camera has been having issues. Either not taking clear focused pictures or not staying on at all, John being the most awesome husband in the world took note of this camera as I looked at it back in December, wishing we had the spare money to get it. He smiled at me and exclaimed "Merry Valen-birth-mas!" Yes, the camera is my Christmas-birthday-valentines gift. It took him some time to scrape the money together with out me noticing and get it as an "investment" in my blog. Have I said yet how awesome he is? Because he is awesome and so much more.

The camera is a Nikon Coolpix S3100. It is a great little camera, and takes some really nice pictures, so of course I got to play with it in the park.

"Hi Mom!"

Gunnar on the A Frame

I watch a bit of dog agility on tv and I never realized how difficult it was for dogs to traverse the A frame. This was Gunnars first day trying it, I think I'll wait till he masters this before I try him on the teeter totter they have.

Back in the shade of the main pavilion.

Relaxing in the shade. It was a long fun filled day at the dog park.

Escape

Last night while checking on everyone one of our green cheeks got loose and went flying about the house screeching.

"I'm a Green Cheek Conure and I'm on the lamb!"

Scarlet ran and hid, bravery is not one of her finer points unless it's something on the other side of the window.

"It's right behind me, isn't it!?!"

Gunnar sat and watched John and I as we wrangled the bird.

"That way, he went that way!"

Echo, who was on the bird stand, wanted to help. He hopped down and ran around the floor squawking back at the flying green cheek following it from the ground.

"Notme bird up there! Notme bird up there! GET IT!"

It was a very amusing night. :D